Harvard's Harry Parker Awarded 2011 USRowing Medal

PRINCETON, N.J.--Longtime Harvard and former
Olympic coach Harry Parker is this year’s recipient of the
2011 USRowing Medal, USRowing has announced.

Given in recognition to a member of the rowing community in the
United States who has accomplished extraordinary feats in rowing,
it is the highest honor USRowing can bestow. Parker, 75, will be
honored at the inaugural Golden Oars Awards Dinner on Wednesday,
Nov. 30, at the New York Athletic Club in New York City.

“It is appropriate to recognize the achievements of Coach
Harry Parker with the USRowing Medal of Honor at our first-ever
Golden Oars Awards event,” said USRowing chief executive
officer Glenn Merry. “He is iconic in the sport of rowing and
stands amongst the top coaches in the world.

“The U.S. team benefited greatly through his coaching at
several Olympic Games, and many of our finest rowers developed
during their time at Harvard. I suspect many rowers and coaches
share my admiration for Coach Parker. It is with great enthusiasm
that we celebrate his contributions to the sport and his life as an
oarsman.”

“I recognize it’s a distinct honor and I appreciate
it,” said Parker. “Honors are not my thing; my thing is
coaching. That’s what I get a real sense of satisfaction
from.”

Now in his 50th season as the Thomas Bolles Head Coach of Men's
Crew at Harvard, Parker is considered one of the most accomplished
rowing coaches in the history of the sport.

After being promoted from interim head coach to head coach in 1963
following Harvard’s victory over Yale University in the
Harvard-Yale Race, Parker’s crews have achieved unprecedented
success.

His crews’ achievements include 21 undefeated seasons; 27
EARC Sprints titles; 21 junior varsity sprints titles; eight
official and eight unofficial national championships, three IRA
championships since 2003 and a 42-7 record over Yale in the
Harvard-Yale race.

Under Parker, Harvard crews have competed internationally at the
1968 Olympics and the 1967 World Rowing Championships. He was named
the men’s Olympic coach for 1972, where he led the U.S. eight
to a silver medal in Munich, Germany.

He also served as coach of the first U.S. women's crew to compete
in the world championships, winning a medal in 1975. Parker later
coached the U.S. women's eight to a bronze medal at the 1976
Olympic Games in Montreal.

Parker attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in
English and learned to row. Following college, Parker began
sculling competitively.

He won the men’s single sculls at the 1959 Pan American
Games. That same year, Parker finished second at the Henley Royal
Regatta to six-time champion Stuart MacKenzie. In 1960, he
represented the United States in the event in the Olympic Games in
Rome, Italy, where he finished fifth.

Parker was elected to the USRowing Hall of Fame as a coach in 1974
and as an oarsman in 1977.

Co-hosted by USRowing and the National Rowing Foundation (NRF), the
dinner will honor excellence in the sport during 2011 and serve as
a fundraiser for USRowing’s national teams and its diversity,
inclusion and adaptive programs. The celebration will feature a
presentation of several of USRowing’s traditional awards, as
well as the introduction of the new USRowing “Fan’s
Choice” Awards to be announced in the coming weeks.

USRowing is a nonprofit organization recognized by the United
States Olympic Committee as the governing body for the sport of
rowing in the United States. USRowing’s official suppliers
include Boathouse Sports, Vespoli, Win Tech, Filippi, Croker Oars,
Rudy Project, Concept2, Nielsen Kellerman, PowerHTV and Ludus
Tours. USRowing also receives generous support from the National
Rowing Foundation and its corporate sponsors, ANXeBusiness Corp and
Voxer. For more information, visit www.usrowing.org.
USRowing has created compelling programs to engage sponsors leading
up to the 2012 Olympic Games, with proceeds going to help ensure
the U.S. team’s success. Opportunities also exist to partner
with America Rows – supporting diversity initiatives and
adaptive programs. For more information, please contact Beth Kohl
at beth@usrowing.org.